This specification generally relates to content presentation.
A search engine results page provides a user of a search engine with a list of search results that the search engine identifies in response to a search query. Search engine results pages may include advertisements that are relevant to the search query. Advertisements, which are also referred to as “sponsored listings,” are typically displayed on the right hand side of a search engine results page or directly above the search results, although other locations are possible.
The user, the search engine provider, and the advertiser may all benefit when the user selects or otherwise interacts with an advertisement that is displayed on the search engine results page. When the search engine results page includes advertisements that are not interesting to the user, the user may become annoyed and quickly navigate away without selecting or interacting with an advertisement. As a result, the opportunity for the user, the search engine provider, and the advertiser to benefit may be reduced.
In order to increase the quality of search results provided to the user, search engines may provide suggestions that are likely to be relevant to the initial query, and thus likely to be of interest to the search engine user. The user may be more interested in one or more of the suggestions than the initial query for various reasons.
Search engines may also use suggestions to maximize exposure to relevant targeted advertisements. Search engines may display advertisements relevant to the suggestions in addition to advertisements relevant to the initial query.
However, in some cases suggestions and associated advertisements turn out to be of no interest to the user. This can occur due to various factors, such as because one or more terms being used in a context different than the user had in mind. Such cases represent squandered opportunities for providing targeted advertisements to users.